Since the tabbed inbox came out last year, open rates and click rates have gone down for emails that get sorted in the promotions tab. If you are among those trying to work around the tabs, this may be good news for you.

Last week, Gmail announced a new test feature for emails in the promotions tab. It is an optional grid view, which presents the emails in the tab as images with subject lines to give readers a preview of what’s inside. AOL’s Alto has a similar feature where like-emails are grouped in ‘stacks’ and promotional email are shown as images that look more like an online catalog than a typical inbox.

In this post, we will look at how this feature works in detail and how you can use it to your advantage:

Put your best .gif forward

By default, Gmail’s algorithm will pick out an image from your email body to use for the grid. The recommended image size is 580 px x 400 px. If your images are bigger in size, Gmail will crop it for you. Conversely, if the images in your email are way smaller than recommended, Gmail pulls out text, like a headline, to put in the place of an image.

As the sender, you have the ability to set it up to specify the featured image you want your customers to see. A properly chosen image could be what it takes to get a reader to open your mail, so it is advisable not to leave that job to Gmail.

Don’t overlook your subject line

Your subject line will still need to work its magic because the first 75 characters will be displayed with the image. It is the same for the first 20 characters of the sender’s name.

Whether you are using your name, your company’s name or both in the email sender field, see to it that the first 20characters read nicely so it doesn’t get cut off in an awkward way. If your company has a verified Google+ account, you can link your logo from there as a small icon in a sender image section that is also in the grid view.

Get your test gear on

This feature is currently on trial phase, and account holders need to sign up to be part of the trial. There is still no indication when, or if, Gmail plans to roll this out for everyone. Nonetheless, it is not too soon to start testing how images will best render on the grid.

It is helpful to know how much of your subscriber list is on Gmail. This covers subscribers with @gmail.com addresses and others on Gmail’s branded email option, which may be harder to find out as they are organizations that use Gmail’s inbox interface but use a domain that is not @gmail.com.

Segmenting your subscriber list according to domain and creating a unique version of campaigns for Gmail users will allow you to be a step ahead of competition when this feature is made available for everyone. The grid view is only available on desktop at this time, so it will not impact users on mobile devices yet.

In this day of digital mail, getting the word out to customers is just as crucial as creating great content and offering amazing products. The key is in maximizing every channel that there is to your benefit.